Nested in the world

Dr Natalie McDonagh

I am endlessly fascinated by nests that birds make.

Let your eyes to linger on the photographs below and absorb the skill of building something so intricate, so complex. A container constructed of twigs, grasses, occasional found materials that is at once fragile and robust. Building this with two human hands would be a feat but to build it with a beak fills my mind with delight and wonder.

It is curious and strange to me that ‘bird brain’ is a term for a silly or stupid person.

The nest in the photographs sits close to my meditation cushion in the Artfulmind lab. As an object of contemplation it asks me to consider what it is to be nested in the world. I invite you to contemplate this for yourself:

How am I nested in the world?

The clever bird that made this nest incorporated wire binding from a book. I use these wire bindings in books that I make. It is strong, has sharp ends and is very difficult to wrangle. I ponder this feat in amazement.

If you are curious about how this nest came to me, it was out in the open on an expanse of manicured lawn, at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, in 2014. I was in the company of two environmental scientists whose assessment was that it had been abandoned. I wrapped it carefully, carried it home and have been contemplating its wonders ever since.